Bassel Khartabil (Arabic: باسل خرطبيل; 22 May 1981 – 3 October 2015), also known as Bassel Safadi (باسل صفدي), was a Palestinian-Syrian open-source software developer. He was detained without trial by the Syrian government in 2012 and was secretly executed in 2015. Human rights organizations say that he was detained for his activities in support of freedom of expression, and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considered his detention to have been arbitrary.
His last work included an open, 3D virtual reconstruction of the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, with real time visualization using the web programming framework Aiki Framework. This was later created and displayed in his honor.
In 2018, the Bassel Khartabil Free Culture Fellowship was announced in Khartabil's memory. The fellowship awards $50,000 and additional support to individuals developing open culture in their communities. The fellowship was created by Creative Commons, Fabricatorz Foundation, Jimmy Wales Foundation, Mozilla, #NEWPALMYRA, and Wikimedia.
Khartabil was arrested a few days before his marriage contract to Noura Ghazi, a lawyer and human rights activist, was to be signed. The contract was finalized later that year, while Khartabil was in prison. The couple first met in Douma in April 2011 after coming back from a demonstration.
On Valentine's Day 2015, Ghazi made public a love letter she wrote to Khartabil, where she reflects on what has taken place in Syria in the time he had been imprisoned:
Bassel, I am very afraid, I am afraid about the country that is being slaughtered, divided, bleeding, being destroyed..
Ouch Bassel, I am very afraid that our dream is changing from seeing ourselves being the generation freeing their country to the one witnessing its destruction. Ouch Bassel, I am very afraid …
His father was a scholar who wrote about atheism and Bassel himself was an atheist.
For its 2012 list of Top Global Thinkers, Foreign Policy named Khartabil together with Rima Dali as #19 for "insisting, against all odds, on a peaceful Syrian revolution."
On 21 March 2013, Khartabil was awarded Index on Censorship's Digital Freedom Award. Although still detained at the time in Adra Prison, Khartabil was able to communicate his gratitude through Dana Trometer and Jon Phillips receiving the award on his behalf, wherein he paid "respect to all the victims of the struggle for freedom of speech, and, especially for those non-violent youths who refused to carry arms and deserve all the credit for this award."
Khartabil was chief technology officer (CTO) and co-founder of collaborative research company Aiki Lab, which produced the web programming framework Aiki Framework. This was used to let multiple people collaborate on building other projects such as the sites for Openclipart and the Open Font Library. He also contributed to the Fabricatorz project and the Sharism movement.
He also served as the CTO of Al-Aous, a publishing and research institution dedicated to archaeological sciences and arts in Syria. His last works included an open, 3D virtual reconstruction of the ancient city of Palmyra, with real time visualization of the models. An international community came together to contribute to the Palmyra project.
On 15 March 2012, Khartabil was detained amid arrests in the Mazzeh district of Damascus by Military Security Branch 215. That day marked the one-year anniversary of the Syrian uprising, with pro- and anti-government protesters demonstrating in Damascus and elsewhere in the country.
Khartabil was interrogated and allegedly tortured for five days by Military Branch 215. One week after his arrest, security forces reportedly took him to his home where they confiscated his computers and his files. He was then transferred to the Interrogation Division Branch 248 and detained there incommunicado for 9 months. On 9 December 2012, Khartabil was brought before a military prosecutor who charged him with "spying for an enemy State" under Articles 272 and 274 of the Syrian Criminal Code. Khartabil was then sent to the Adra Prison in Damascus.
On 12 December 2013, a request for written answer on the question of Khartabil's imprisonment was raised before the European Parliament to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative), stating that "his voluntary work, always non-violent in nature, was greatly valued by Syrians of all backgrounds, and it is strongly suspected that his arrest was part of an effort to restrict access to online communities and discourses and stifle free expression in Syria". On 18 March 2014, the written answer from High Representative/Vice-President Catherine Ashton was published, stating that "The HR/VP deplores the ongoing imprisonment of Bassel Safadi Khartabil, shares the concerns at his situation and follows it very closely".
On 21 April 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted an opinion on Khartabil's case, calling his detention "arbitrary" and asking for his immediate release. The WGAD concluded that Khartabil's detention violated Articles 9, 14 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Syria ratified in 1969.